Medical

Each puppy will arrive with two printed copies of the medical record. One of these is marked “Yours” and one is marked “For the New Veterinarian”. Should you wish to know the medical records before arrival/pickup you can use the schedule on this link.

Many people wonder why some dogs and cats eyes water, which causes a stain on the fur just below their eyes. This condition is called epiphora. When the facial hair is wet from excess tearing it is the breeding ground for bacteria and yeast. Not only is it unsightly but may be very irritating to your pet. The staining may also emit a moderate to noticeably strong odor. Up until now these reddish brown stains due to tear pigments were hard to eliminate completely. Tear staining can be traced to health and diet, as well as genetics. Here are some helpful tips to improve your pets well being:

Keep your Pet Healthy: Have your pet checked at least twice a year by your veterinarian for ear infections and ear mites, gum infections, common yeast or bacterial infections of the eye (especially Red Yeast) and for clogged tear ducts.

Check your Pet’s Diet: Artificial food colorings (dyes), artificial food additives and preservatives, corn, wheat and soy can cause allergies in cats and dogs. These allergies can cause tear stains. Also check for face rubbing, licking of front paws, head shaking, and ear inflammations these are other signs of allergies. Water minerals can also add to tear staining. Use bottled or filtered water in a stainless steel bowl.

Keep your Pet’s Eyes Clean: Hair in the eyes can cause infections and irritation. Eyelashes can grow at abnormal angles and rub on the eye. Check your pet’s eyes regularly. Also check for collected dust, stray hairs, and dried tears. Any foreign matter in the eye is likely to lead to tear stains.

Hygiene: Keep your pet’s eyes clean. Always wash your hands first before touching the area around their eyes. Wash your pet frequently. Always make sure you comb them first before washing to remove any knots or matt’s. Keep the shampoo out of their eyes to avoid irritation.

Recommendations: For those puppies with stubborn tear stains lingering long after the teething process, we do recommend the Angel Eyes Chewable. This is an oral chew given once daily that combats the yeast growth. All new hair growth will be clean and stain free. You will find these in our storefront.

Frequently used for a clean show ring face are Angel Eyes Soft Chews. One a day means all new hair growth is clean and pure. Of course you will find these in our storefront.

Hair RemovalRemoving the hair from the inside of your dog's ear is as easy as it is for most ladies to tweeze their eyebrows. It does not harm your dog and most times will not even hurt them. Removing the hair from your dog's ear is an important part of grooming and keeping the ear in a clean healthy state for certain breeds. Some breeds do not require hair removal, though any non shedding breed does. Examples include Poodle breeds, Shih tzu, Coton de Tulear, Havanese, Goldendoodles, Portuguese Water Dogs and Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier do require it as part of the hygienic process. A shedding breed such as a Cavalier King Charles will not need hair removed from the ear.

Tweezer or Hemostat RemovalHemostats are like longer tweezers with room for your fingers , although I personally prefer a woman's eyebrow tweezer, also found in our store.

To use either of the afore mentioned tools, you may opt to use the ear powder in the ear first, to absorb ear wax and moisture. ( I normally do not). Grab a small amount of the ear hair with the hemostat/tweezers and tightly pull outward toward you. Be careful not to pinch the ear itself when reaching for the hair and do not go any further inside the ear than about an inch. Repeat the process in both ears until the desired hair is removed.

Cleaning:Because of the shape of our pets' ear canals, they are particularly prone to ear problems. Bacteria, viruses, yeast and many parasites thrive in a warm, moist (and dirty) environment. Cleansing your pet's ears should be a weekly ritual from a very young age. Cleaning ears and allowing adequate air circulation is especially important for dogs with long or floppy ears.

Here are some tips to help you with this easy procedure:• Gently pull the pinna (earflap) upward to straighten the ear canal. Squirt an ear cleaning solution into your pet's ear and massage the base of the ear between your thumb and forefinger for 20 to 25 seconds. This ensures that the cleansing solution gets a bit deeper into the ear.

• Let your pet shake out the extra solution, then get him relaxed again for the next step.

• Use a soft cloth to remove excess wax and debris that the solution and shaking have brought up. Do not insert anything down the ear canal.

• After cleaning, fold earflaps back for about five minutes to dry ear canals, and then finish with a small amount of an ear drying powder.

You'll be surprised at the amount of debris that you can remove. Regular cleansing of your pet's ears can prevent many potential ear problems before they start and will save you time and money in the long run. Your pet depends on hearing as one of the strongest of his senses and it just makes sense to take good care of them.

A dew claw is similar to a thumb — complete with a toenail — but it grows a bit higher up on the paw than the rest of the toenails on that paw and it never comes in contact with the ground. The risk of dewclaw injury also may prompt dewclaw removal. Dewclaws are unnecessary on the backs of dogs' legs and most often unnecessary on the fronts as well. The majority of dogs have dew claws on their front paws.Some dogs also have dew claws on their back paws.

Sometimes the dew claws are not "properly attached". They may also "dangle" or "hang", or just get in the way during the normal course of playing and walking.Not to mention the fact that dogs with dew claws who also like to dig a lot, will sometimes irritate the dew claw, or even break the dew claw bone (not all dew claws have bones). This could usually happens when reaching through a chain link fence or something similar.

If the dew claws on your dog’s front or rear paws seem to easily get caught on things, then they could easily rip off — which would be very painful for the dog. In this case, you should talk with your vet about whether or not to have the dewclaw(s) removed.

But sometimes the dew claws are not "properly attached". They may also "dangle" or "hang", or just get in the way during the normal course of playing and walking.Not to mention the fact that dogs with dew claws who also like to dig a lot, will sometimes irritate the dew claw, or even break the dew claw bone (not all dew claws have bones). This could usually happens when reaching through a chain link fence or something similar.

If the dew claws on your dog’s front or rear paws seem to easily get caught on things, then they could easily rip off — which would be very painful for the dog. In this case, you should talk with your vet about whether or not to have the dewclaw(s) removed.

Reputable breeders choose to remove dewclaws on puppies in the first week of life, because soon after birth the dewclaws are more like fingernails than appendages. At that young age, dew claws can be removed relatively easily and no stitches are required.

Motion sickness is common among puppies and lessens with age. In the meantime, motion sickness can be prevented in most cases by pretreatment with an antihistamine. Give either of the following one hour before travel; Diphenhydramine (Benadryl, 25 mg orally) or meclizine (Bonine 25 mg orally for a 25-30 pound dog) Side effects of these medications could include mild sedation but they are in general very safe. As your puppy grows older, you can try decreasing the dos and/or discontinuing its use.

If motion sickness is not prevented using either of the above, your veterinarian has stronger aniemetic medications that can be safely administered.Remember that the closer your puppy rides to the front of the vehicle, the less likely he is to get motion sickness.

There can be few things worse than being greeted by a dog that has just dinned on dog feces or seeing your dog making a beeline for the cat tray to clean up the cat feces left by your cat after it has visited the cat box. Poo breath is not a pleasant thing to be greeted with. This behavior of eating feces is called coprophagia. It is a very frustrating behavior to stop because dogs seem to enjoy eating feces and the more we moan at them to stop the more they do it.

The reason why it is difficult to stop dogs from dining on dog patties and cat smarties is that coprophagia is a natural behavior for dogs. Bitches clean up the feces of puppies to keep the den clean and dogs are scavenges and feces are utilized by scavenges as a food source. Intestinal parasites are the only health risk associated with coprophagia in dogs because the acidic pH of the canine stomach will inactivate any pathogens swallowed with the feces. However poo breath of a dog that has just dinned on feces can put a huge strain on the human animal bond. For this reason it is important to treat any cases of coprophagia.

There are a number of medical and behavioral causes for coprophagia. The medical conditions are mainly caused by dogs not digesting and therefore not absorbing their food properly. This results in dogs excreting undigested food in the feces making their feces palatable for other dogs. The causes of this so called mal absorption mal digestion syndrome can be as a result of parasite infection in the gut of a dog or the dog may not be secreting sufficient enzymes to digest their food. Therefore it is very important to take the dog whose feces are being eaten to a vet for a clinical exam to exclude any medical reasons for their faces being eaten.

There are many behavioral causes for coprophagia. These include boredom. Many dog breeds where originally bred to perform a job. However these days most dogs live in a yard and are not given a job to do. So they relive their boredom by eating feces and often this does cause a reaction from the owner. The owner will often get angry with the dog and so the dog gets attention, even if this is negative attention it is still attention.

Other causes include, using coprophagia to get attention form the owner, mimicking what its mother did, i.e. cleaning the den by eating feces and a subordinate dog may eat the feces of a more dominant dog. This is not an exhaustive list of behavioral causes, therefore it is important to take the dog that is eating feces to a vet to have the dog clinically examined and if no medical problem is found to then consult an animal behaviorist to try and work out why the dog is eating another dog’s feces, or its own feces and the animal behaviorist can then give the owner advice to alter the environment of the dog and alter the way in which the owner and dog interact. This will go a long way into solving this problem. The other things are dogs seem to find irresistible is cat feces. The moment you let the dogs out in the morning they go straight for the area where the cat has gone to the toilet and dine on the feces the cat has left behind. They can also often not wait to get to the cat box. Cat diets need to have a higher fat and protein content then dog diets. This can result in cat feces being very palatable for dogs. Solving this problem does involve an integrated approach and dedication from the owners. Firstly any medical causes for coprophagia need to be treated and it is also advisable for owners to consult with an animal behaviorist to get advice on managing any behavioral causes for coprophagia. In the case of a cat feces being eaten owners need to try and put the cat box in a place that dogs can not get too and in the case of dog feces being eaten the owners need to clear up feces as often as possible to limit the access of the dog to feces (taking them out on a lead and pulling them away from the source once they have eliminated).

Then finally the dog needs to be persuaded that dog and cat faces do not taste nice. This is done by making the feces unpalatable for dogs. There are many remedies out there on the web, but we have found success with the treat form. Every pet in the home must be given the treat so that all feces has that undesirable taste.

There are two types of plans. One is a wellness plan. This plan is the type offered by Banfield (the PetsMart veterinarians). For an example of this plan feel free to stop in at your local PetsMart and check it out or browse the following link.

We highly recommend that you treat your puppy/dog with a product to kill fleas, ticks, lice and mosquitoes. We are sharing a comparison chart for you to view. We ALWAYS use one of the products that controls mosquitoes as mosquitoes carry heartworm and West Nile Virus. Canine Advantix II is an excellent product that we have found to be very gentle for use on puppies under six months of age.

Vomiting is commonly caused by the ingestion of harmful substances. There are many items that are known poisonous to dogs. Just like with children, make sure these items are locked up so your puppy can’t get them. For more information on poisonous substances, or for an item that isn’t listed here, please consult ASPCA’s Animal poison control center (fee is charged for certain services)

A Coton de Tulear that was born here at Heartland ate a few of the pet bird’s grapes in her new home. She vomited them right away, but the juice alone shut down her kidney system. After weeks of intensive therapy she is a survivor, but we want to warn all families about the dangers of dogs eating grapes and raisins. Little Indy, is now the spokes doggie for the ASPCA’s infomercial about grapes and raisins.

If you ever have a concern that your puppy isn’t eating as much as you believe that he should~ and that he may be ill, do try cooking up a scrambled egg and offering that to him. If he eats well then we know he does have an appetite for food.

Also feel free to check the gums of your puppy’s mouth. Nice pink ones mean that you have a healthy puppy, pale white gums mean that the puppy is ill, dehydrated and needs immediate attention from a veterinarian.

Canine Coronavirus is widespread in the dog population worldwide. It invades the rapidly growing cells of the intestinal lining causing nausea, lack of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea. It is primarily a disease of puppies.

Is an intestinal infection that is caused by the protozoan parasite giardia, which is the most common intestinal parasite that is found in humans. Dogs develop the infection by ingesting infectious offspring (cysts) that are shed in another animal’s feces or through a mama’s milk. It is VERY common in puppies and certainly not reason to panic.

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